Science in the Docks, Art in the Stocks

In the middle of last month I gave the opening talk at an ESRC-sponsored art/science crossover event. There's now an online report of the event. I'm not sure that I was arguing for the use of synthetic biology to create works of art per se, simply that the applications I highlighted used biological systems as the medium, rather than simply as inspiration. Nontheless, the report gives a decent overview of the whole event, which was certainly well worth doing (despite chronic tiredness, my daughter having been born less than a week previously...)

Aventis Prize

Congratulations to fellow Atlantic Books author Vivienne Parry; her book The Truth About Hormones has been shortlisted for the 2006 Aventis Prize.

Bioprinting

"Sitting in a culture dish, a layer of chicken heart cells beats in synchrony. But this muscle layer was not sliced from an intact heart, nor even grown laboriously in the lab. Instead, it was "printed", using a technology that could be the future of tissue engineering."